- NINIAN MCGUFFIE
Ninian McGuffie from the Box Office takes charge for this month’s Staff Choice. He has chosen a 1970s hidden gem that sees a God-fearing boy dodging the Civil War draft, joining up with a hard-up group of like runaways heading west.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire: Civil War draft dodger Drew Dixon (Barry Brown) avoids the horrors of war by fleeing west, only to become mixed up with a gang of lawless youths led by the debonair con man Jake Rumsey – brilliantly played by a young Jeff Bridges.
The allure of a free-spirited desperado life is quickly spoiled by a series of mishaps that leave the bandits lacking food and money and in constant fear of more sinister criminals like Big Joe (David Huddleston).
They are traveling through territory that’s supposed to be crawling with ferocious native tribes like the Arapaho, but in fact the dangers they meet are imported from the East. Well acted and gritty, this is one of the more authentic Westerns of its era.
This was Benton’s first feature film before really breaking into the Hollywood stratosphere with 1979s ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’, for which he won the Best Director Oscar.
Ninian says:
“Hello film lovers. May I humbly recommend this funny revisionist western from the writers of ‘Bonnie and Clyde’. Lensed by Gordon Willis (The Godfather films) in the fashion of photographs of the Civil War era. Wonderful performances from co-leads Bridges and the short-lived Barry Brown. A rare chance to see this remarkable film on the big screen. Do yourself a favour and get down to the cinema. You won’t regret it.”
